A SOSHANGUVE woman of the cloth is tired of gender-based violence and said the justice system is merciful to offenders of GBV.
Reverend Rachel Shuma, a member of the Ethiopian Catholic Church in Zion in Soshanguve, Tshwane, is calling for an end to gender-based violence and for the justice system not to be lenient with perpetrators.
Shuma was one of the pastors who presided over the funeral service for Smangele Malema (26) in Soshanguve on Sunday, 22 October.
Smangele was strangled, raped and burnt to death, on Tuesday, 10 October, allegedly by a man who lived in her kasi.
She said GBV worries her as a pastor because she also lives in the same area where Smangele was killed.
"We are pleading with the justice system not to fail the family. I was also a victim in 2001. My husband, Reverend Philemon Shuma, was killed in a hijacking incident by thugs. My problem is that the justice system did not help me in any way. It has failed me. When I attend funerals of crime victims, it touches me and I want justice to be done," she said.
She called on pastors to pray for such evil spirits. Shuma said she usually has flashbacks when she hears about such crimes that have happened to others.
"I pray to God to give me strength even though I have not found closure yet," she said.
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The woman of the cloth said some of the people who commit crimes are church members, adding that churches need to stand up and pray.
Shuma said even though she believes in forgiveness, the perpetrators need to be imprisoned so that they can be transformed.
She said that she doesn't believe in mob justice, and it must stop to let the law take its course.
Regional secretary of ANCYL in Tshwane, Onkgopotse Thompson-Peete, said they understand that social ills crisis isn't an isolated event.
"Our social ills are primarily on the basis of less economic opportunities for young people. There's no sober young person who will want to inflict pain on another if they're economically liberated," he said.
"There's an issue of moral regeneration that we are trying to address in Tshwane. Our interest is that we want to reconfigure the family set up."
